Kovac: Janitors rally for respectable wages, benefits

COLUMBUS -- Did you hear all those janitors chanting in front of the McKinley statue at the Statehouse last week?

If not, you may get your chance, as they spread their "No Justice, No Peace" message to Dumpsters and buffed floors in cities across Ohio.

The Justice for Janitors campaign is supporting about 1,500 capital city workers who have organized under the banner of the Service Employees International Union (Local 3). The union has had comparable organizing activities in Cincinnati and Indianapolis. In the former, workers recently secured a contract that ensures pay raises and health benefits. In the latter and in Columbus, workers hope to sit down with their cleaning contractor bosses and do the same.

"These folks on a daily basis clean most of these buildings in this city -- especially the ones that you see that are towering around us," Brian Rothenberg, executive director of Progress Ohio, told onlookers outside the Statehouse last week. "... We are demanding basic rights as a coalition. Those rights include a living wage, health benefits and a job free of discrimination."

The coalition supporting the effort includes 50-plus community, faith, labor, political and grassroots organizations and 250 individual activists, Rothenberg said.

Their demands: Full-time jobs with "respectable wages" and "critical benefits, such as health care," according to union documents. "When Somali janitors in Columbus report serious national origin and religious harassment, janitors in Indianapolis are denied overtime pay and many janitors in Cincinnati are paid less than $28 a day, it is clear that we face a critical situation."

"Many of the janitors have gone years in this city without a raise," Rothenberg said. "They continue to make the minimum or just above the minimum wage. And very few even have an option to purchase health care and access in the basic health care system that others have."

That's not to mention the lack of respect for the profession.

"There was a time in this country when all work was considered respectable and valuable," Eric Brown, pastor of Woodland Christian Church, told dozens of sign-wielding cleaning staff and supporters. "Somehow, somewhere, somebody decided that certain jobs ought to be considered menial and that a menial salary ought to go along with a menial job. We've got to help employers consider all work valuable and respectable again."

And Brown urged employers to consider the alternative: "Who wants to do business in a dirty building?" he asked. "... How many customers (would they) lose if the janitors weren't around to keep the buildings clean? ... (These janitors provide a very valuable service, and they should pay you a very valuable salary and give you valuable benefits. Anything less would be unjust."

This isn't just a Columbus issue. Chris Moore, who heads community outreach for Service Employees International Union Local 3, said the group plans to expand into other parts of the state, once it has secured contracts for the Columbus workers.

"This is something that started in Cincinnati," Rothenberg said. "... (I)t has expanded to Columbus, and it will expand to other areas when we succeed here in Columbus in the future."

Organizing is a complicated process that takes time. A majority of workers from a majority of cleaning contractors in an area have to agree to get involved.

"It's taken years," Moore said of the Columbus effort. "The janitors here have been organizing for the past four years."

Additionally, there are economics and market issues to consider -- organizing activities are probably feasible where there are janitors cleaning buildings with more than 100,000 square feet of space, he said.

Still, Service Employees International is poised for expansion, Moore said.

"We're going to be looking for areas to grow," he said, adding, "Ideally, we'd like to have every janitor involved."